From the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to wildfires and floods, public health emergencies are becoming increasingly common and complex. There is a need to not only respond quickly and effectively, but also ensure there is trust in the institutions, research process, and researchers and practitioners behind public health emergency preparedness and response.
On March 29-30, 2022, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Health Sciences Policy will host a public workshop bringing together experts and key stakeholders to examine issues of building public knowledge of and trust in the public health emergency preparedness and response (PHEPR) science enterprise—the institutions, the research process, and the researchers and practitioners.
Invited presentations and discussions will:
- Examine why the topic of public trust (and trustworthiness, credibility, confidence in, among others) is important in PHEPR science and develop a shared understanding of its importance and its relationship to other factors that contribute to social cohesion in public health emergencies.
- Explore key elements of PHEPR science communication and generate actionable communications strategies based on recent experiences.
- Generate actionable strategies and approaches for building/maintaining trust, communicating PHEPR science and the scientific process in the face of uncertainty and in response to the recent decline in the perceived credibility of federal, state, and local agencies.
- Examine the ways in which diverse demographic groups experience PHEPR science differently and generate strategies and approaches for building trust in PHEPR science and the scientific process that is tailored to these varied experiences
This workshop is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information, including the workshop agenda and planning committee biographies, please visit the CDC project website.